The first
remote sensing satellite developed by National Space
Organization (NSPO), FORMOSAT-2, successfully launched
on May 21, 2004 onto the Sun-synchronous orbit located
at 891 kilometers above ground. The main mission
of FORMOSAT-2 is to conduct remote sensing imaging
over Taiwan and on terrestrial and oceanic regions
of the entire earth. The images captured by FORMOSAT-2
during daytime can be used for land distribution,
natural resources research, environmental protection,
disaster prevention and rescue work etc. When the
satellite travels to the eclipsed zone, it will
observe natural phenomena such as lighting in the
upper atmosphere. The observation data can be used
for further scientific experiments. Therefore, FORMOSAT-2
carries both "remote sensing" and "scientific
observation" tasks in its mission

The FORMOSAT-2's Image Processing System (IPS) is independently developed by NSPO. It is designed to process images by scheduling image taking operations according to the user's needs. After the images are taken, the data will be downloaded through X-band antenna, prossed by the IPS such as radiometric and geometric corrections and then filed and stored in the computers. These files will be delivered to the end users based on the clients' requests. The entire image processing system structure is shown in the following figure.